Turkey Tortilla Soup

GREAT tortilla soup made with leftover turkey, corn tortillas, and chipotle in adobo. EASY!

Photography Credit:
Elise Bauer

Do you like tortilla soup? It’s one of the easiest soups to make from scratch. You start by frying strips of corn tortillas in a little oil until crispy, then use that same tortilla-infused oil to sauté onions as you start to build the soup. The flavor is fabulous!

It’s usually made with chicken, but we can just as easily make this soup with leftover shredded turkey. If you have homemade turkey stock? Even better.

In this version we are spicing up the soup base with a minced chipotle chili in adobo. The smoky flavor of the chili goes perfectly with the turkey.

From start to finish the soup takes less than an hour to make, and it’s so good you’ll want to make another batch. My father came over the day I made a pot of this soup and he ate half of it! Cleaned us out actually. Now I’m waiting for our Thanksgiving leftovers so I can make some more.

Method

1 Fry strips of corn tortillas: Somewhat dry corn tortillas work best for this, so you can either leave the tortillas out overnight on a rack, or put them in a 200°F oven for 10 minutes. (If your tortillas are too dry, you can soften them by putting them in the microwave for 30 seconds.)

Slice them into 1/4-inch wide strips, and then cut the longer strips in half.

Heat oil in a 4 to 5 quart, thick-bottomed pot on medium high heat. When the oil is shimmering hot, working in batches (a third at a time) add the tortilla strips.

Fry them until lightly browned at the edges, a minute or so. Use tongs to remove them to a paper towel-lined plate.

2 Cook the onions until softened: Add the chopped onions to the pot with the remaining oil. Cook on medium high heat until softened, about 3 to 4 minutes.

Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.

Is the chili you use spicy at all? Do I find it in a regular grocery store? My kids can’t eat spicy, but I’d love to make this recipe since the flavor sounds amazing. Thanks for sharing your recipe. :-)

Hi Jamie, the chipotle chili adds a lot of flavor to this soup and a little bit of spiciness. I would start with a half chili and see how that goes with your kids. You can find it in a regular grocery store that has an International section that includes Mexican products.